The London-based BBE Muisc label continues it’s remarkable J Jazz series, dedicated to some of the finest and most obscure Japanese jazz recordings from the late sixties to early eighties, curated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, with a reissue of Hideto Sasaki and Toshiyuki Sekine Quartet +1’s 1976 hard-bop masterpiece Stop Over.

Originally released on the private label Smile, in an extremely limited quantity of just 100 copies, this sessions is led by trumpeter Hideto Sasaki and pianist Toshiyuki Sekine, and also features alto saxophonist Noriyasu Watanabe, upright bassist Kei Narita and drummer Takashi Kurosaki.

The five-track recording features a number of great standards, including Bobby Hutcherson’s modal classic “Little B’s Poem,” Tadd Dameron’s “Soultrane,” Cedar Walton’s “Turquoise Twice,” and Denny Zeitlin’s “Carole’s Garden.” The album’s most standout moment, is on the “Jazz Messengers-esque” title track “Stop Over,” which was composed by Sasaki and also featured on volume two of BBE’s J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan compilation.

The album is brilliant from start to finish, featuring a heavy dose of sixties Blue Note-era hard-bop and swingin’ modal grooves. An absolutely essential Japanese jazz reissue!

Hideto Sasaki – Toshiyuki Sekine Quartet +1 — ‘Stop Over’
(Originally released: 1976 /
(Reissued: 2019 / BBE Music)

1. Carole’s Garden
2. Soultrane
3. Turquoise Twice
4. Little B’s Poem
5. Stop Over

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• Jazz
• Reissue